I found this movie to be absolutely stunning in terms of direction and acting. The two lead actors were absolutely great and believable in their performances. The director was great at capturing moments of erotic tension and tenderness between the two leads. In terms of plot and story-writing there are certainly some flaws that could have been better worked out, but I really appreciated the way the theme was approached and developed. The neo nazi ideology was certainly one of the main themes but the director and the writers weren't too judgmental and they let the characters shine regardless of the reasons that brought them to be a part of such a violent and racist community. I certainly advice to watch it, cause it gives a good depiction of a "different" homosexual relationship not framable in the usual stereotypes of gay love. Good job!
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This is a very strong movie in many respects. It has a compelling and very strong story to tell, concerning subjects of great importance, and in many ways, as the movie shows, very contradictory. It has at least four very strong performances by both of the two leading characters (David Dencik and Thure Lindhardt) and some of the supporting characters (especially Nicolas Bro and Morten Holst). It contains some very strong but also very different situations of on one hand very strong violence and on the other hand strong love and passion. One of the biggest strengths of this movie is, imo that a lot of things are never said, but only hinted at or shown by facial expressions, gestures or in some cases simply silence. Those elements added makes it a movie worth watching - if you have the stomach for it! I for one must say that the last 15 minutes of the movie left me with a very cold and very unpleasant feeling, that I have not yet been able to shake completely off two days later!
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lasttimeisaw21 March 2012A gay romance happening inside a Danish Neo-Nazi clique, what a crack idea! The film intriguingly narrates a compassionate experience of a former Danish serviceman Lars (Thure Lindhardt, the winsome blond from ANGELS & DEMONS 2009), whose passionate courtship with Jimmy (superbly played by David Dencik from A SOAP 2006, another 8/10 film from Denmark, a frenzy macho role sheerly contrasts with his transsexual image in the latter film), who is the fervent skinhead among a gay-bashing Neo-Nazi group. (Speaking of Nazism, my downright ignorance thwart me from the knowledge of how exact the film tackles with the thorny issue, judging by the film, it is basically understated I suppose).
There are abundant cinematic conflicts in the plot, although predictable, but applied deftly (by a poignant performance from the two leads and a fine-tuned hand-held camera movement, it never cease trembling). An exemplary northern Europe topography and scenario imbues an obscure hue of cruelty and restlessness.
The performances are solid (Morten Holst, who plays Jimmy's younger brother, might be a tad histrionic), both the chemistry between two lead actors and the impending tragedy are brewed perfectly on time and the sex scenes are aesthetically beguiling. More encouraging, the film doesn't take either stand to beautify or disparage the Neo-Nazi image, while love happens everywhere, so does gay love. An ambiguous deus ex machina aptly averts any cliché in the over-exploited gay-theme melodrama sub-genre although melodramatic might not be a meritorious adjective for a film under the background of a sternly violent context, but also demystifies the remotely tangible target to a humane understanding and transmits a positive message to the preconception-ridden society. -
jm107018 October 2012As soon as a movie starts, I start thinking about how I'm going to review it. For the first 40 minutes, I thought I was going to throw this movie in the gutter where it belonged when I reviewed it, because for all that time there's practically nothing but revolting Nazi crap. It's very, very hard to sit through. The first scene is the violent beating of a cruising gay man by a skinhead who had come on to him and told him how beautiful he was before calling out his gang to beat and kick the guy to a pulp (an incident that re-enters the story significantly near the end).
After that are long scenes of the ugly Nazis (the men are physically as well as morally ugly) spewing their toxic garbage into my ears where it was not welcome. But then... ah, then... at about the 41-minute mark, Lars and Jimmy start looking at each other in a new way, and EVERYTHING changes. The first 40 minutes of hateful garbage are well worth suffering through to get to that exquisite tenderness and passion.
Thure Lindhardt as Lars is a gentle, enormously attractive beauty from his first scene to his last, but the character is pretty flat: steady and strong but not very interesting. David Dencik got the meaty role in Jimmy, and he pulls it off brilliantly. He is completely believable both as the bitter, arrogant, brutal Nazi homophobe and as the sweet, gentle, deeply vulnerable and passionate man who eventually emerges from that hateful shell. If the first third of the movie had not been so revolting, Jimmy's emergence from that horrible world would not have been so marvelous. And it IS marvelous, some of the loveliest acting I have ever seen.
Raw, naked, totally defenseless vulnerability is something rarely seen in movies, particularly from male actors. In fact the ONLY previous example that comes to mind is Jane Fonda fairly early in her career - in Klute and even more powerfully earlier in They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Fonda, in both those roles, had been beaten down by a cruel system she was helpless against; but Dencik is breaking out - against his own will - from within an even more brutal system in which he has been on top and on which he has been completely dependent for his identity.
He discovers that he's just like the guys he's been attacking, and that discovery shatters him. It shatters him, but it finally begins to set him free to be himself for the first time. It's a very great performance that makes an otherwise mediocre movie (deeply offensive when it's not simply unbelievable) well worth watching. The transformation just in his eyes is astonishing. All eight stars are for him. -
BeneCumb3 September 2015Western welfare, alienation from success-based society, yearning for order and clarity - those are the benchmarks of the events taking place in Broderskab, where fanning Nazis and feeling same-sex attraction - supposedly excluding - melt into a tense and varied narration full of strong feelings, both good and bad. Well, the script seems realistic, but not so catchy and novel (the beginning and ending are, though), but the whole mood and strong performances (particularly Thure Lindhardt as Lars, David Dencik as Jimmy, Nicolas Bro as Michael/"Tykke") provide the film with suitable depth and versatility. In spite of the fact that the looks of Dencik is not so gay at all.
On the other hand, as Danish drama films are so high-class, then, according to me, Broderskab is not among the finest ones. Definitely good and recommended to watch, but not in my respective personal Top10. Thus, "only" 7 points from me. But strong points still... -
Dr_Coulardeau10 August 2012This is a love affair between two men that met accidentally but the object of the film is gay-bashing in Denmark in general, and in extreme right Nazi movements in particular. The anti-gay position of Denmark (and its armed forces) is not explained just as if it were "natural", "organic" and "bio-degradable". But the film shows how absurd the anti-gay position of the Nazi movement is.
It is for these swastika men a fundamental position because you cannot be a man and be gay at the same time. Gay men don't exist. They are not natural. They have to be naturalized back to nature with a good beating, if not simply reduced to natural vegetative non-life, generally known as death. But they don't kill. They inflict some fatal wounds so that the person will surely die in a lot of suffering and over a long period of time.
That's purely barbaric and the film shows it so well that it becomes insolent, as if we were too dumb to know it.
At the same time the brother of the older member, Jimmy, of the group who falls in love with the newcomer Lars is shown as disturbed: drugs, suicide, all the symptoms of a young man who was violated, brutalized and probably sexually assaulted by a member of his family, probably his elder brother, Jimmy himself, is not clearly diagnosed as being such a victim which would explain why he got his vengeance against his brother by telling the chief of the group like a fink he is about the love affair that Jimmy is having with Lars.
The logic of this character is obvious but it is in no way clearly said, and this younger brother sitting next to the hospital bed of his elder brother who is in a coma and will probably never come back, and all that because he, the younger brother, spread the good news of his liaison with Lars, is pitiful and pathetic and his walking out when Lars arrives with some glances exchanged as if there were some communication meaning something we cannot know but imagine like "See what you did. Am I ever going to forgive you?" etc. And Lars as well as the fink of a younger brother could say that equally.
But once again all that is not explicitly said or expressed and that is frustrating. The wider meaning that could concern human nature itself and human society as a whole is made ghostlike and the only clear message is the anti-Nazi manifesto the film is. But to say that "Pakis cost us billions of kronen whereas a bullet only cost a few cents" is rather superficial to build a plot and a psychologically sound character.
But the shallowest part of the film is the love between Lars and Jimmy because it is shown as practically instantaneous, with no tenderness, no spiritual dimension, purely physical, one kiss and off we are, and emotional, contact in forced solitude, to the verge of brutality. That type of love exists for sure but it is not very eloquent to our minds in the context it is situated in, a neo-Nazi party in Denmark. In fact the Muslim Pakistanis they hate so much are not one iota different on that point. They should join forces to liberate the world of "faggots" but it works in the worst possible way since it is Jimmy who provokes the Pakistanis and Lars who saves him when he is on the point of being severely mashed down by pure numerical superiority. And during that time the local boss of the Nazi group is preventing the other members from rescuing Jimmy.
That is so bleak that it leaves me dubious as for any real meaning in that film that becomes a string of grotesque vignettes and burlesque cameos on a tragic subject that is hardly seriously touched.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU -
The strength of this movie definitely lies with the brilliant actors in it and the director's ability to let them shine.
I didn't expect the story and the plot to be perfect and it wasn't. The main character Lars' decision to get involved with the Nazi community is a tiny bit contrived but no more than you would expect when it is told with a few short scenes before the movie is allowed to focus on the human aspects of the story and dwell on the consequences of the character's action without being judgmental or painting any of the characters solely in black or white. Something that is rather a bit of an achievement with this particular subject matter. Enough good cannot be said of the amazingly honest and heart-wrenching performances of the two lead actors. They are both incredibly talented and the director obviously appreciated this. The result is a chilling but also a very intimate and at times tender film. Well worth seeing. -
ekurrin0022 June 2011I rarely take the time to sit down and write a review after watching movies, but for Brotherhood I opted to make an exception. This movie was so wonderfully composed I hardly know where to begin. It had everything I look for in a movie, depth, superb acting, chemistry between characters, intriguing/thought provoking plot, and a well-choreographed cinematography.
Let's just start with the two main characters, Lars and Jimmy. I mentioned already that the two of them had great chemistry, and nowhere is that more apparent then in scenes where the two of them become intimate. There is a wonderful tenderness between the two that is communicated simply through body language and fleeting glances. You can tell exactly what they're thinking about one another with every glance.... the fear, hesitation, longing, it's all said without words. Beautifully done.
What makes the relationship between Lars and Jimmy even more striking is by having it take place against the backdrop of the intolerant Neo-Nazi organization that both men belong to. It adds a whole new sense of irony and suspense to the story, while also casting a looming sense of foreboding over their entire relationship.
You just know after watching the beginning scene (in which a gay man is brutally beaten into hospitalization by the brotherhood), that something terrible is going to happen to Jimmy and Lars if anyone ever finds out. I found myself biting my nails through the whole movie just hoping that they'd avoid that type of situation.
Unfortunately, there is a fair bit of violence at the end, but perhaps not from places you might expect it from initially. In any case, I felt more or less content with how the director chose to resolve the film. He didn't pretty anything up for us or give us a fairytale ending by any means, but he didn't completely crush our spirits either.
What he did do was deliver us a movie that was both deeply moving and tragically human. Mistakes were made, pain was delivered, betrayals were made, but intertwined throughout all the bad, there was beauty, compassion, acceptance, and love. It was a great movie and I would definitely recommend it to others without hesitation.
My one qualm with this movie has to do with Jimmy's background story. I would have liked just a bit more information as to what really motivated him to join the Aryan Brotherhood in the first place. Other than that, it was wonderful! -
This is one of the most amazing films I have seen in past months. There are some many details that you have to take into account... The fact that the director tried to establish a parallel between the army and the neo Nazi group, the main character's parents push him aside and let him into the group. To me, it's all about the need of belonging, that need we all have as humans. Another interesting fact is that there are no frequent computers, no cellular phones, it almost makes the story timeless. Lars is really a Nordic character because he does not quit when faced with trouble.
So, If you take a deep look the film is powerful, full of knowledge, love, passion. It's so sad that sometimes we have to find strength, hope, love among those who cannot grow - parents, groups, enraged people.
This film is real just like pure emotions. They slide into you and make you human. -
krusadk12 August 2021This is a cheap "remake" of the far superior movie Brokeback Mountain.
But whereas Brokeback Mountain was a fully realized movie, this one is rushed and so cliché it hurts.
Skip Brotherhood and watch Brokeback Mountain instead - you'll be happy with that decision. -
PeachHamBeach29 July 2011This Danish film is one of my two current favorites of gay cinema (the other is the Argentine film PLAN B, which I will review asap). BROTHERHOOD is the most beautiful, passionate, erotic film I have ever seen. I recommend it with all the force I can! For a large portion of the film, the 2 main characters do not live lives that I can call admirable. Lars, a tow-headed guy who has recently served in the military, is joining a Neo-Nazi group, obviously drawn to those who think and act like Hitler did. They attack and bash routinely Pakistani citizens and homosexuals.
Lars meets Jimmy, a full-on skinhead. At first Lars and Jimmy dislike each other, but when they begin to collaborate on improving a house for the movement, they find themselves (gasp!) attracted to each other. The love scenes are amazing because of the acting, the chemistry and the yearning musical score.
When the lovers realize that they are living and loving every way their hate group believes is wrong and "unnatural," they are forced to make fateful decisions that may cost them their lives.
It left me speechless and heartbroken, but the tagline is true: Love conquers all. -
adamsoch-13 July 2011... or was it the other way around? Not in this well written and acted film BROTHERHOOD, where two natural events are not tolerated just because THEY told them so, globalization and honest feelings. The beautiful saying "live and let live" has no meaning for so many in this ever growing and shifting global society or the sadistic skinheads and members of this Danish brotherhood.
Gone are the days when countries were separated by well-guarded borders or when you were supposed to be whatever your religion, family or community wanted you to be. It is a lost cause, but THEY still fight it with venom like hate and gruesome violence.
At first you are led to believe that the title of the film is referring to the group where a premium membership is difficult to get, but latter you discover the true meaning of brotherhood or betrayed brotherhood. There were moments during the film when I forgot to respire, I forgot where I am or what time it was, finding myself wanting to turn away from the screen for a second hoping to protect myself from the violent blows or the delightfully true moments of beauty and love of the two protagonist. Repressing your feeling is possible only for a short period of time and we all do this on a regular basis, but when it come down to our biological necessity, what we call LOVE, sooner or latter it will erupt, explode, gush out and NOT gently but with dire consequences.
Brotherhood is an important film on so many levels for individuals and society in general especially for those living with "stuck in ancient times" mentality. Humankind evolves with lightning speed and "some" people should evolve with it, but unfortunately dogma, personal feelings, opinions are huge obstacles, creating violence and unnecessary hurt. For me this great film has an important message: Let people love and be true to themselves because it has nothing to do with you or the ills of the world and if you oppose this natural feeling, YOU are an obstacle to humanity and the beautiful progression nature created for us to "live life" as it should be lived. -
sergepesic21 April 2013Ah, the magic and confusing explosive mixture of machismo and sexuality!!! There is no other institution with such discomfort at the mention of homosexuality, than the military. It certainly makes a lot of sense. If your purpose is spilling of the blood, what do you do with arousal and men loving ? Well, the skinheads are based on the same false patriotic and quasi-military principals. Shaved heads, extremely tight pants, loud music, cheap beer, and almost exclusively male company.No surprise than, that Lars and Jimmy hit it off so well nor that it ended so badly. Nothing filthier than moronic notions of purity, racial or sexual. The nature of humankind is exactly the lack of purity and aching imperfection of us all. Whenever you try to take that away, you destroy the essence of our existence.where do you go after that?
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I read a review saying that this movie is the same as brokeback montain..not at all..so it's better that we watch it ourselves before being influenced by the review ... hahaha..it's true that you can't fight BBM because the instructions from ang lee are already international. .the only thing I want to say is that this movie has a different storyline ... whatever I understand, BBM is the best of the best..until now I remember ... haha..in this movie I will probably get that happiness again, but from BBM only memory will be carried ...happy watching...
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Kirpianuscus2 November 2015at first sigh, a strange , unrealistic story. at the second, a good job. in fact, only a hypothesis about a men click and the clash between feelings and ideology. not new idea but used in wise manner. cold, cruel, with subtle references to Greek mythology, Brotherhood has a lot of virtues. the acting, the script, the set, the atmosphere, the not comfortable situations, the culture of hate against an exotic form of heresy. a film who propose a bitter subject who could not be represented only by gay relation but the manner to define the pillars of national identity, the courage and the national virtues. a film about a group and its broken rules. and a brilliant art of exploration of details.
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Vincentiu19 January 2012Sense of love, hate or life. Sense of gestures and words. Sense of meetings and guilty, justice and feelings. Sense of punishment. A movie about neo-Nazi group and a young man in search of his place. A gray world. And answer to solitude. Images of intolerance, hypocrisy and self escape. A gay movie. At first sight. In fact, picture of crisis. Crumb from a real/imaginary Danish life style. A love accident as answer to deep problems. Like essence of two existences. The story is interesting, the acting is good, the script is balancing exercise but important is only the last images. A hospital. Two men. And the hidden words. The look of innocent traitor. And the game of facts as trace of snail. Source of questions, this film must see. Not exactly for tale. Maybe , as antidote against intolerance and prejudices. But the real motif is just the temptation to discover world beyond its skin. That is all !
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iza886815 November 2011I never wrote a review before,but this movie demands it.This is one of those rare movies that had a truly stunning effect on me and i couldn't get it out of my head for days.What makes this movie an excellent one is the brilliant performance of the two lead actors, and the ability of the director to depict such a sensitive subject with true artistry, without making it seem exaggerated in any way. The director manages to illustrate the highly unusual love story that makes the central theme of the movie with much tenderness, although we are talking about the relationship of two men coming from a violent and cruel environment.
The two protagonists, Jimmy and Lars meet when the latter joins a neo-nazi group,of which Jimmy has been and old member,pretty high in the hierarchy. When Jimmy unwillingly becomes Lars' tutor, the two begin to form a bond that slowly develops into love and eventually turns into a passionate love affair.The chemistry of the two actors is amazing, making their scenes, especially the intimate ones, look very natural and believable. Added to this is their subtle body language, which in many cases becomes a substitute for dialog, managing to express much more than words. Despite the numerous tender moments, this is far from being an idyllic romance. The whole atmosphere of the movie is quite tensioned, which I actually liked, because it was obvious that their illicit relationship sooner or later will be discovered, and the members of the "Arian Brotherhood" won't be exactly thrilled about it.
Although basically a love story, this movie is about so much more. The exceptional directing skills of Nicolo Donato managed to make it also into a story about hypocrisy, betrayal,revenge, and also a meditation over the multiple meaning of the term "brotherhood": we have the brotherhood between the members of the neo-nazi group, who betrayed one of them without hesitation when he broke the rules,also betraying them in his own way;we also have the literal brotherhood of Patrick and Jimmy: while Jimmy hesitates between his "brotherly" obligations as a member of the neo-nazi group and sibling of Patrick, and his lover, Patrick also has his own little drama, being torn between the option of betraying his brother for the sake of the group, or keeping his mouth shut for the sake of his brother. We can also consider a sexual "brotherhood" between the two protagonists, who eventually has given up on everything for each other. As we expect, their romance ends with tragedy, but not all hope is crushed, as we are being left with a somehow optimistic view,given by Patrick's last words. -
lukn4frnz11 November 2011Reading all the other reviews, I've never wondered if they were all submitted by the people involved in making the movie, this time, I gotta wonder.
Nothing likable about these characters, so I never really cared what happened to them.
Obvious not a lot of time and money went into the making of this - way too dark. Sure the plot was dark, but couldn't hardly see some of the scenes.
Still confused who knifed the one guy.
I stopped it half way through, thinking 'Surely I have better ways of wasting my time than this.' Later, hoped maybe it'd be worth watching til the end. It wasn't.
I generally like most movies, this one wasn't good at all.